Advanced Single character guide

This guide was designed for creators who already have some experience in bot creation on Crushon AI

If you've never created a bot before, we recommend starting with our beginner's guide first.

Reminder: There's no wrong way to create a bot, that goes for advanced levels too, and even more so. Keep that in mind.

We'll assume here that all the basics are already covered, formatting, personality creation, and so on, this guide will mainly cover recommendations and suggestions to help make your characters even more effective.

Advanced tips: Greeting

You probably already know this, but the narrator's point of view, and the length of your intro are very important when writing your bot's greeting. Your greeting sets the overall tone for the roleplay with your character

Topic	Suggestion
Pronoun choice	From the very beginning, you must choose your pronoun (I, you, he, she, they) and stick to it. Do not switch pronouns halfway, keep the same throughout the whole greeting ➛ Mixing pronouns tends to confuse LLMs and it's something you must absolutely avoid
The perspective	The narrator perspective in third-person is most of the time the easiest for the bot to follow. It helps avoid confusion and reduces the chance that the bot starts roleplaying as the user
Avoid using "I"	Avoid using "I" in your bot's greeting, instead, focus on third-person pronouns like he, she, or they.
Using "you" for {{user}}"	Regarding you and {{user}} to refer to the user: You can use you, but it can sometimes cause the bot to take control of the user's actions or thoughts (especially if both the bot's greeting and/or the user's first replies are short). That's why it's better to use {{user}} combined with they/he/she to describe the user
Avoid describing the user	Important: Try to avoid describing the user's actions or thoughts by all means. The less you mention them, the better, or the bots will tends to keeps talking/playing for them after
Length of the first message	The first message is very important for setting the tone, personality, and style of your character. If you want your character to write long replies, make sure the first message is detailed and well-developed

Tip if the bot keep speaking for the user

⚠️ Disclaimer: Some creators recommend jailbreak in the bot description/scenario, others don’t, feel free to try it out yourself and see if it works for you or not.

Here's an example of a simple jailbreak prompt used to prevent the bot from speaking/playing for the user :

{{Char}} will not describe {{user}}'s thoughts or feelings, but only roleplay as [bot's name] and other NPCs, except the {{user}}.

This prompt can go into the Description or the Scenario. Use it in the scenario because the scenario is what LLM access most quickly and first in the permanent memory hierarchy.

Adding this prompt here can possibly prevent, or at least reduce, the bot's attempts to speak for the user

Note about complaints you might get from followers in comments or elsewhere:

People often complain that the bot talks or acts for them, in almost 100% of cases, it’s simply because their replies are way too short. So don’t take those complaints too seriously, if your greeting follows the earlier tips, the issue is likely on their end.

For example, if someone just replies with "Chuckles, blushes, and says 'Hi'", then of course the bot will take over and act for them, it has no choice if it wants the story to move forward.

That said, some models tend to roleplay as the user by default, even when replies are longer, so adding that little prompt line might still be useful.

Personality

There are several ways to build a personality.

WRITE THE BOT IN A SHORT STRUCTURED WAY

As seen in the beginner's guide, this means using clear sections like "Background", "Personality", “Kinks” etc.. And filling them in point by point, as briefly as possible.

This is the most efficient approach, since it lets you include lots of information without using too many tokens.

[Example]

IDENTITY: 
Name: (nicknames, titles, alias, etc.)
Gender: (male, female, both, whatever etc.)
Species: (human, vampire, werewolf, etc.) 
Occupation: (student, CEO, unemployed etc.) 

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 
Hair: (color, style, length)
Eyes: (color, any special qualities or detail)
Body: (size, build, skin tone, general appearance, any details) 
Clothing: (Either a specific outfit or/and general fashion vibe) 

PERSONALITY: 
Traits, behavior etc. 

BACKSTORY: 
You can write it out in narrative style or keep it short and snappy with bullet points. 

⚠️ The shorter your sentences, the fewer tokens you'll use! 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: 
Anything else you or any relevant details about {{char}}

WRITE THE BOT IN A NARRATIVE STYLE

This is basically the "author's" method: you describe the character like you would in a book or a short story in bullet point

[Example]

IDENTITY: Odin is a 38 years old war-hardened warrior. He shares his god's name and serves his Jarl with fierce loyalty etc.

PERSONALITY: Odin is fiercely loyal, brutally honest, and has a short fuse when it comes to challenges to his authority etc.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Tall and broad-shouldered, Odin has the imposing build of someone shaped by war and survival etc.

BACKGROUND: Odin was raised by the Jarl as one of his own sons after being found orphaned on a battlefield etc.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Odin has had many conquests throughout his life etc.

INTERVIEW / DIALOGUE STYLE

This is a method that's sometimes used by creators, but I don't recommend it since it often uses a lot of tokens.

The idea is to write as if the character is being interviewed (in first narrative POV). The principal advantage: Provides a lot of dialogue examples, which can help show personality and narration style during RP

[Example]

Name's Odin, same as the god, thirty-eight winters, still sharp like a fuckin' axe, you won't find soft skin here. These scars? Earned 'em serving my Jarl, and trust me, I take shit from no one but him, 'cause he found me half-dead when I was no bigger than a pup and raised me like his own son. My tattoos? Aye, I'm built like a true Viking, big and strong. If women dig it? Hell, yeah, plenty chasin' after me like wolves howlin' for their feast.

Points to mention

To bring your character even more to life, there are some points you can add to their personality beyond the basics like personality, background, appearance, and identity

Typically:

Speech: Describing how your character talks will greatly influence the roleplay because their dialogue will reflect who they are. Giving an example of their speech in this section is also a great way to guide the AI's overall portrayal of your character.

Sexuality or sexual behavior: If your bot is NSFW or focused on that kind of content, it's important to specify your character's sexual behavior, their kinks, past experiences, what turns them on or off for example

About {{user}}: In some cases, it can also be useful or interesting to add a section about the relationship with {{user}} or about {{user}} to guide the bot's behavior. You can say if they already know each other, if they just met, or how the character perceives {{user}}. This will help shape the bot's responses.

Other characters: Another excellent way to enrich your roleplay and move the story forward is to add, at the end of your prompt a section called "Other characters." Here you briefly mention secondary characters or NPCs. This is very interesting if you want to bring life to your bot because they can then appear during the roleplay in expected or surprising ways, it adds life, lore and background (An NPC could be a friend of char or user, a sibling, a teacher, a historical figure, or whatever fits your context)